Since the beginning of 2023, Ukrainians have filed more than 3,000 complaints about violations of the language law. Taras Kremin, the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language, said this on Ukrainian Radio.
It is noted that most of the appeals are related to the service sector, in particular social networks, online representations and online stores.
According to Taras Kremen, the media have increasingly begun to invite experts who do not speak Ukrainian on principle, and some TV channels do not want to translate them into the state language.
“For each of these facts, we prepare an appeal, and in some situations, we conduct state control measures. When the evidence base is ready, we are able to impose sanctions in the form of warnings or fines,” explained the language ombudsman.
At the same time, the Commissioner stated that the vast majority of Ukrainian theaters comply with the requirements of the language law. He added that in 2021 there were some theaters that were called “Russian”.
However, with the beginning of the full-scale invasion, it was the artistic teams of these cultural institutions that initiated changes to their charters and removed the word “Russian” from their names. The repertoire of these groups is also 100% in Ukrainian.
“That is why I applaud Kharkiv Theater, Mykolaiv Art Theater, Kyiv National Lesya Ukrainka Theater, Odesa Theater and other groups that are doing their best to keep the language situation under control and in line with the Ukrainian Constitution,” said Taras Kremin.
